Earning the lead spot in the night’s A-Feature line-up, Larson stayed on point for the first three rounds before surrendering the top spot on lap three as Brady Bacon sailed the cushion off turn four.

“I knew it was going to get to the top within a few laps” commented Larson when asked about Bacon taking the lead away early on. “I really was focusing on finishing in the top three and wasn’t really too worried about him [Brady Bacon] getting by me but he was setting such a fast pace and I didn’t know how fast the other guys were behind me.”

With the majority of the field following suit to the cushion, slower traffic would approach quickly with the leaders finding the tail of the field by lap ten.

Taking to the hub to advance through traffic, the time spent around the berm was enough to allow Larson to begin closing the distance between the two.

As the pair of leaders raced on into heavier and heavier traffic, Tony Stewart and Casey Shuman continued a race long contest for the show position with Stewart putting the Chevrolet Performance No. 14 into the third spot on the sixteenth round.

Asked about the track, specifically being able to roll the bottom, Stewart replied, “At the beginning I think when they watered it was still a little bit greasy when we first started the race. It went away in a couple of laps but it was difficult for the first couple of laps to get going down there. As the pace kind of slowed down, my car got better from the halfway point on.”

As Stewart settled into third, Bacon raced to lap eighteen with Larson finding his chance at the lead with traffic holding Bacon to the bottom of the Tulsa Expo Raceway. Taking the PPM No. 99 back to the cushion, Larson would dive the bottom of turn one, pulling even with Brady down the back straight-a-way to take the lead entering turn three only to see the caution flag wave in turns one and two; reverting the field to the last fully completed lap.

Restarting with eighteen laps completed, Larson wasted no time going for the slide job, taking the lead exiting turn one and leading the remaining seven circuits.

“I got a big run on him into one and slid him, and that was kind of the move of the race” commented Larson. “After that I just focused on hitting my marks.”

Brady Bacon would try for the lead in the closing laps but fell short with Tony Stewart taking the final step on the podium. Casey Shuman held on for a fourth place finish with Chris Windom making up the top five.

Broken Arrow, Oklahoma’s Jonathan Beason advanced from his tenth starting spot to finish sixth. Despite dropping a valve in the final laps, Phoenix, Arizona’s R.J. Johnson held on for seventh with Finland’s Markus Niemela crossing the stripe eighth. Shane Cottle and Kevin Ramey rounded out the top ten.

The two C-Feature wins went to Darren Kingston and Kurt Mayhew with four A-Feature Qualifiers taken by Markus Niemela, Brady Bacon, Kevin Ramey, and Shane Cottle.

B-Feature victories belonged to Seth Motsinger and Zach Daum who earned the Hard Charger of the night, after a DNF in his Heat Race put the No. 5D last in the second C-Feature. Passing thirty-four cars through the C, B, and ultimately A-Feature, Daum ended up twelfth at the checkered flag.

Also a part of the Warren CAT Qualifying Night was the VIROC V. Headlined with fifteen drivers of who are either past Chili Bowl champions or driving for champion car owners, Kevin Swindell showed his continuing dominance of the Tulsa Expo Raceway with a closing lap pass on race long leader J.J. Yeley to earn his first, and third straight Swindell win in the Vacuworx Invitational Race of Champions.